Can not loop through FOR XML AUTO results - sql-server

Question

I am taking some data from DB through stored procedure and i am using FOR XML AUTO to get this data.
query is like this
WHERE ITEMNUMBER=#itemid AND DATASET = #dataset FOR XML AUTO, ELEMENTS) AS filters
and result xml is
<filters extra="filters">
<ISP_WebItem>
<FILTER>Type</FILTER>
<FILTERNAME>Matematik</FILTERNAME>
<UNITCODE></UNITCODE>
</ISP_WebItem>
<ISP_WebItem>
<FILTER>Strømkilde</FILTER>
<FILTERNAME>Solceller</FILTERNAME>
<UNITCODE></UNITCODE>
</ISP_WebItem>
</filters>
Now my problem is that when i try to loop through this result in my xslt,I am unable to get any result.
My XSLT code is like this
<xsl:variable name="filt" select="msxsl:node-set(filters)"/>
<xsl:for-each select="$filt/ISP_WebItem">
<xsl:copy-of select="FILTER"/>
</xsl:for-each>
I am getting the filter xml correctly in my 'filt' variable, but the for each loop never executes correctly.
When i tried putting break points in my code,I noticed that code execution never enters inside the loop ,that means
<xsl:for-each select="filt/ISP_WebItem">
this piece of code never satisfies.
And for extra info this filter node is a part of large XML data,every other nodes in this data is working correctly(ie i can loop or do any operation with them).
can any one suggest any possible reasons.

Answer 1

There are two problems with your XSLT. Firstly, filt is a variable, and so you need to prefix it with a $ to indicate this, otherwise the XSLT will be looking for an element named filt
<xsl:for-each select="$filt/ISP_WebItem">
Secondly, in your XML sample, FILTER is an element, but your xsl:copy-of statement is looking for an attribute named 'FILTER'. You should be doing this
<xsl:copy-of select="FILTER"/>
However, if it is an attribute, leave it as <xsl:copy-of select="#FILTER"/>
This XSLT would work, for example
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" extension-element-prefixes="msxsl">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:variable name="filt" select="msxsl:node-set(filters)"/>
<xsl:for-each select="$filt/ISP_WebItem">
<xsl:copy-of select="FILTER"/>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
In fact, if you did just want to copy the elements, and nothing else, you could remove the xsl:for-each and simplify it to this
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" extension-element-prefixes="msxsl">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:variable name="filt" select="filters"/>
<xsl:copy-of select="$filt/ISP_WebItem/FILTER"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
However, I am not quite sure if you need to use node-set in this instance (although I guess you are just showing an abdriged code sample, so maybe it is necessary for something elsewhere).
The following would also work
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" extension-element-prefixes="msxsl">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:for-each select="filters/ISP_WebItem">
<xsl:copy-of select="FILTER"/>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
EDIT: If you are still getting problems, try one of the following expessions instead.
<xsl:for-each select="$filt//ISP_WebItem">